


like the way it felt to fall asleep next to you

by dejaboo (cosmicbluebells)



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Fluff, Fluff without Plot, M/M, Roommates, Self-Indulgent, Sharing a Bed, Short One Shot, Sleepy Cuddles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-17
Updated: 2020-06-17
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:15:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24778249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosmicbluebells/pseuds/dejaboo
Summary: Mark and Donghyuck have shared an apartment for over a year. For the most part they avoid each other and it works out well, but then there are times like this - when Donghyuck stumbles into Mark’s room at one in the morning, mumbling something about a bad dream.Alternatively: Mark is more cuddly than he thought he was. Something about Donghyuck just brings out his affectionate side.
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee
Comments: 13
Kudos: 188





	like the way it felt to fall asleep next to you

**Author's Note:**

> @ me writing the most unoriginal, shortest one-shot out there just to satisfy my need for cuddles. Title taken from 5SOS' "Amnesia" (I will go down with the 2000s trend of using song lyrics as titles and you can't stop me). Not beta-read but I'll come back to edit eventually, so I'm sorry for any grammar/spelling mistakes!

Mark and Donghyuck have shared an apartment for over a year now - Mark’s cousin Jaehyun mentioned that he had a friend who needed a place to stay, and Mark had recently started apartment-hunting with meagre savings and nothing but a part-time fast-food worker job (he came home smelling every day like grease and french fries without even getting to eat the fries).

It took a while to get used to, but now their living situation works as an interdependent relationship. Both of them have their own chores and duties - Donghyuck is in charge of cooking because Mark, to put it nicely, is rather lacking in the food preparation department, and Mark deals with the nasty landlord when the time rolls around to pay rent - but generally leave each other alone. 

The only exception to that was when Mark still worked in fast food and the oily odour followed him around even after he showered, leading to a barrage of complaints on Donghyuck’s end and Mark answering with a defensive remark or two. It’s been a few months since then and their communication has dwindled now that Mark doesn’t smell like greasy burgers anymore.

Their sporadic encounters consist of teasing insults from Donghyuck and Mark firing back with a thinly veiled jab - albeit usually weak and nowhere near as biting as Donghyuck’s remarks. Then again, Mark has always been a pushover, unwilling to say mean comments of any kind. It makes him an easy target for people like Donghyuck.

During their time living together, Mark has learned that Donghyuck is the epitome of all bark, no bite. He hides behind sarcasm and good-natured taunts but when push comes to shove, he’s more likely to back down than start a fight.

The two have an unspoken agreement to not hold conversations when they aren’t necessary (Donghyuck finds Mark boring and Mark finds Donghyuck exhausting to talk to), and for the most part, it works out well. Mark spends evenings at the library, while Donghyuck is gone for the majority of the day doing God knows what.

But then there are times like this, when Donghyuck stumbles into Mark’s room at one in the morning, playing with the sleeves of his pyjama shirt while Mark fumbles to turn on the lamp light switch.

“What’s wrong?” He asks, rubbing his eyes with his fists, voice sleepy and thick. It's not the first time this has happened, so he thinks he can guess why Donghyuck is standing in front of him. He haphazardly hunts around the bedside table, grabbing his glasses and balancing them on his nose bridge so he can focus on Donghyuck’s face.

“Bad dream,” Donghyuck mumbles, avoiding his gaze. It makes him look more vulnerable than Mark usually sees him, when all they exchange are sarcastic back-and-forths sprinkled with the occasional reminder to unload the dishwasher. 

His eyes are fixed on the ground and he rocks back and forth on his slipper-clad feet. If he had a teddy bear right now, he would be holding it to his chest, but instead, he fiddles with his sleeves, twisting and untwisting the corners.

The question hangs in the air for a few seconds, Donghyuck unwilling to verbalize what he’s feeling while Mark struggles to sort out his thought process. Eventually, he peels back the corner of the blanket and pats it awkwardly as a sort of invitation. “Um, you can sleep here, I guess.” The bed is barely big enough for both of them, but he squeezes himself to the very edge of the mattress to make room.

Donghyuck dives gratefully into the warmth of the bed, bouncing on the mattress twice. He rolls over to look at Mark and giggles, “Your bed-head is really cute.”

Mark scowls and rubs his hand half-heartedly around his hair to tame the pineapple-like spikes sticking up around his head. “Go to sleep. And don’t steal the blanket or my cold feet will come to get you.” He wiggles his toes underneath the blanket and presses them against Donghyuck’s legs, laughing as he squirms from the sensation.

“You better not do that again, I swear Mark Lee-” he threatens. It melts into a smile when he sees Mark dying of laughter, and he pokes his shoulder with a finger gently. “Shh. I want to sleep.”

Mark answers by flicking the lamp switch off and turning onto his other side so his back is pushed up against Donghyuck like a pillow. The other boy reciprocates in kind, wrapping his arms around Mark’s stomach to lean his cheek against his shoulder.

Mark isn’t a cuddly person by nature, but he can’t help smiling when Donghyuck lets out a quiet sigh of contentment. He tentatively interlaces his fingers with Donghyuck’s, brushing the pad of his thumb across the boy’s knuckles.

“Didn’t peg you as the touchy kind,” Donghyuck mumbles, face buried in the crook of Mark’s neck and soft hair tickling his jaw. Mark has to resist the urge to play with the curly strands of his hair.

He covers his face with a pillow to hide the flush, asking with uncertainty, “Should I stop?” He starts to loosen the grip of his hand on Donghyuck’s hand, but the other boy just squeezes it tighter.

“No. It’s nice,” he trails off at the end of the sentence, mouth falling open as he drifts into sleep. His eyelids flutter closed, lashes casting shadows on his cheekbones.

Mark grins into the pillow. “Sweet dreams, Donghyuck.” It’s one of the longest conversations they’ve ever had (shocking since Donghyuck is enough of a talker for both of them) but funnily enough, he doesn’t dislike it as much as he thought he might.

When Mark wakes up the next morning with half of his body falling off the bed from lack of space - one of Donghyuck’s arms thrown over his side and the other still hugging him, pinky finger tracing patterns on Mark’s palm - he thinks they might need to revisit their roommate pact.

(Then later that day when they’re eating lunch together and he brings up Donghyuck’s bad dream, the boy retaliating by tackling him to the floor while his sides split open with laughter, he isn’t so sure if they even need the pact at all).

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading this completely self-indulgent fluff, markhyuck tag has been pretty dry as of lately so I decided to step in and do my part :) please kudos/comment if you liked it!


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